Bill Simmons suspended for calling Goodell a liar

MCT

Roger Goodell and the NFL have come under intense scrutiny over the last month. Simmons is not the first radio host or pundit to call Goodell a “liar”. The owners have also been thinking about limiting Goodell’s power. PC: MCT Photo

Joshua Patterson, Staff Writer
October 21, 2014

Bill Simmons is an ESPN columnist, podcast host, NBA analyst and editor-in-chief of ESPN-owned Grantland.com who was suspended on Sept. 24, 2014 for comments he made on his podcast calling Roger Goodell a liar.

“Goodell, if he didn’t know what was on that tape, he’s a liar, I’m just saying it. He is lying. I think that dude is lying,” Simmons said. “If you put him up on a lie detector test that guy would fail. And for him to go in that press conference and pretend otherwise, I was so insulted.”

“I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I’m in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell because if one person says that to me, I’m going public. You leave me alone. The commissioner’s a liar, and I get to talk about that on my podcast. Thank you. Please, call me and say I’m in trouble. I dare you,” said Simmons.

That earned him a three week suspension from all ESPN platforms.

“Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our editorial operations must also operate within ESPN’s journalistic standards,” an ESPN statement said. “We have worked hard to ensure that our recent NFL coverage has met that criteria. Bill Simmons did not meet those obligations in a recent podcast, and as a result we have suspended him for three weeks.”

The strange thing about this is that his suspension is longer than the Ray Rice suspension he was ranting over. The suspension is also less than when ESPN First Take panelist Stephen A. Smith said on air that women may provoke some of these domestic violence issues that happen to them. He was suspended for one week.

The real question here is why calling Goodell a liar is a problem when most of America has been doing the exact same thing.

Whether or not Simmons should have phrased it better or edited out some of the things he said is beside the point. If you take the context of what he said he did not say one thing that has not been said by every analyst, columnist or reporter during this whole disaster. Simmons just said out loud what everyone has been thinking, and he was silenced for it.